Delhi High court has ordered the owners of digaaz.com to pay a record ₹10 million (US$150,000) in damages to the owners of a number of international luxury brands for selling counterfeit goods.
The plaintiffs are part of the Richemont group of companies, which includes leading players in the field of luxury goods such as watches, writing instruments, jewellery, leather, accessories and clothing.
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They discovered in February 2014 that digaaz.com was selling counterfeit merchandise and issued cease and desist notices, to which they received no reply.
In his judgment, Justice Manmohan Singh stated that the volume of counterfeit goods sold by the defendants demonstrated that they were “seasoned infringers and counterfeiters with a regular supply of counterfeit goods”.
He also acknowledged that the plaintiffs’ trademarks – Cartier, Officine Panerai, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre – had acquired “a distinct and distinguished reputation” and were among “the most widely recognized luxury brands in the world”.
The plaintiffs asked the court to consider the illegal and unfair profits earned by the defendants, the revenue the plaintiffs had lost, the damage to their reputation and goodwill, and legal fees when deciding what damages to award.
“This is India’s largest grant of damages in an IP case,” said Pravin Anand, the managing partner of Anand and Anand, who represented the plaintiffs. “This will send a very impactful signal against online pirates.”
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